R' Avigdor Miller

0:00I really love these books right next to the mission of brewery here. There's a small set of books on this shelf. There's five, six of them from Rabbi of Bigger Miller. He was one of the really that Sadiqim of our times and one of the great Torah scholars. But he was not a soft kind of a guy when it came to people that were not on the derrach. Not that the people that were trying to come on the derrach, he thought were heroes. But people that were just out there doing their own thing, whatever they felt like doing all the time. He was not a fan of those people. And he points out last week's parasha is that when Yaqov talks about his sons and he's going to give blessings to his sons, he never calls his children by soft animal names. So he describes them as the wolf and he says the lion.

1:03He even calls Ben Yaman the venomous snake. And he goes through these different kind of understandings of why Yaqov calls him that way. But the thing that he really comes down on is this. Hashem is not looking for weaklings. Hashem gave us a lot of special gifts, especially the Torah. He gave us uncommon intelligence. You can look at any study in the world. We're at the top of these chains. And what it says is he then contrasts that sometimes when you have to go up for example against a Russia. Now Russia is a very bad person. We know very few what you would call Roshoyam. Somebody who's publicly saying things against God, against the Torah. That would, and intentionally doing it, that takes it to that level.

2:04But really what he does is he contrasts it with that sometimes we're called sheep and sometimes we're called these vicious animals. Now what do they have in common is that they don't like people. Really the lion stays away unless they're hungry and they have to get a meal. They'll run from the human if they're not hungry. They only kill because they're hungry. When they're not hungry they don't kill. The lions. The lions. Well they, whatever if they're, if they've been fed, they want to stay away. The wolf. It's a lone animal. The snake would rather you run away from. If you step on it it's going to bite you. But if you otherwise it really wants to run away. So what it says is that really we are Hashem sheep. We are the sheep of his pasture.

3:06However there are times when we have these traits, these strong traits that sometimes need to come out. We have to keep them hidden away as much as possible. But when the time is right you have to come out and you have to stand up for things. Very quickly I don't think I told this. They say he tells the story of the tellser of, big rub in Europe. And they came to him in one of the big liberal secular writers who was very popular and just died. And they said, well the rub give him a eulogy. Really the Hashidim thought he would say no. He goes, yes I will. They go, well the people are outside. So he goes out on his balcony with the rhombum. And he goes, right here it says, the rhombum says that when a russia dies his family should not move. He should not mourn in you to eulogize him. They should have a festive meal and dance and sing.

4:10And he goes, that's what the rhombum says. Close is the book and he goes back inside. So all the people wanted them to give you. Oh he's a great man, is this it? No, no, no. When the time is right you have to call it what it is. Everybody have a great day, be a strong Jew. We're not weaklings, we're the strongest of the strong. Thank you, thank you. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead.